Birmingham Fencing Club making a point on the national level

Spain Park senior Eric Wang poses for a portrait during a fencing training session at the Birmingham Fencing Club in Hoover.

When Eric Wang puts on his mask for a fencing competition, everything fades away except for the opponent in front of him. That feeling, he said, never gets old.

Wang, a senior at Spain Park High School, started fencing in 2009. He remembers when his mom first told him about it — she described it as “sword fighting.”

“When I got here, at first I was really confused because it looked like they were just waving around little sticks and stuff, but it turned out to be really fun. I mean, I’ve been here for almost 10 years. It really stuck with me,” he said.

Fencing is a combat sport where points are made through contact with an opponent, with the three modern disciplines including foil, épée and saber. Each of the weapons has slightly different rules and strategies.

Wang practices three to four times a week with the Birmingham Fencing Club, not counting the tournaments he competes in on the weekends. Over the years, he’s won various awards at state competitions around the U.S., he said.

“A lot of people say, ‘Oh, do you sword fight? Does it hurt? Do you get stabbed with sharp objects?’ A lot of those same questions get asked, but usually they’re surprised by it because it’s not a sport people normally do. It’s really unique,” Wang said.

Also to most people’s surprise, he said, is the fact that fencing is one of the safest sports. There’s almost no way to hurt someone through all the protective gear, he said, which includes three different layers of clothing.

“You have to be really focused; it’s a brain game. At first, I thought it was supposed to be all action, but a lot of it is thinking. Coach [Yuanjing] Wang describes it like the sport of chess, physical chess — a lot of thinking, thinking what your opponent is about to do, how you’re going to respond to it, a lot of steps,” Wang said, noting that fencing bouts usually only lasts from 3 to 9 minutes, depending on how fast someone gets points.

When Yuanjing first moved to Birmingham from China in December 1998, only a handful of people invested in fencing greeted him and his wife at the airport. Twenty years later, he said, they have so many students that they are starting to outgrow their studio in Hoover.

Yuanjing, a former Olympic referee for fencing and Chinese National Foil champion, said even though it was a risk moving to Birmingham to coach a new fencing club, he wasn’t nervous. Neither was his wife, Seoul Olympic medalist Hongyung Sun. Both were Chinese National Team coaches ready to take on new challenges.

Wang said he was surprised to find such a high level of coaches living in Birmingham and training fencers who were winning national awards. Yuanjing said he is always thrilled to show people the students who have been through the club and earned fencing scholarships to Ivy League schools. He displays pictures of the several dozen students on the studio wall.

“A lot of coaches ask me, ‘Where are you from?’ and I say ‘Birmingham,’ and they say, ‘England?’ and I say, ‘No, Alabama,’” Yuanjing laughed.

Yuanjing said when he and Hongyung received a lengthy and passionate email from David Arias, now the Birmingham Fencing Club president, they recognized an opportunity and chose to move to Birmingham over any other city in the U.S.

“When you think about it, little old Birmingham, nobody had really heard about the fencing community. … It’s really been a great thing for them, and our club has grown from that first 13 people that met them at the airport in 1998 to probably a little over 100 folks now,” said Arias, who started fencing in 1992 when he was 32 years old.

Yuanjing, who has come to love the Birmingham community over the years, said now the Birmingham Fencing Club has students from most of the schools in the Birmingham area.

Some people, Arias added, drive from Tuscaloosa and Montgomery to be part of the club, and others have even moved from other states because of the level of coaching.

Anyone of any gender, physical capability or age from 6 to 90 is able to try fencing at Birmingham Fencing Club and even compete in national tournaments. Last year, Arias said the oldest fencer in the club died at age 98 and had fenced competitively until he was 90 years old. The group also has a number of veteran fencers who have been fencing for more than 40 years either competitively or recreationally.

Yuanjing Wang holds a small panoramic photo from his welcoming to Birmingham. When Yuanjing first moved to the Magic City from China in December 1998, only a handful of people invested in fencing greeted him and his wife at the airport. Twenty years later, he said, they have so many students that they are starting to outgrow their studio in Hoover.

Arias said for a lot of people who try it out, there’s often an aspect of romanticism.

“In one way or another, everybody brings that interest to the sport of fencing from seeing movies to playing and sword fighting from when you were a kid to ‘Star Wars’ lightsaber fighting,” he said.

Although some people originally got into it for fitness, as Arias said he did, they fall in love with it after a while and it becomes a life-long passion.

“If you love competition, it’s a sport where your opponent is right in front of you, and where if you succeed or fail, it’s entirely on your shoulders,” he said.

Many of the students are also friends outside the club and even travel to competitions together. Birmingham itself only has a couple of competitions each year, so fencing requires a lot of weekends traveling to compete.

“I’m extremely privileged to be able to sign off with [the Birmingham Fencing Club],” Wang said, since he will be heading to college next year. “Being in this community, having really strong coaches, it’s obviously helped me a lot.”

He added how thankful he is to have parents who supported his fencing so much over the years.

“Absolutely come and learn it. You can also just try it out if you want,” Wang said. “I think it’s so fun. It’s a great sport.”

Last year, 35 Birmingham Fencing Club students were invited to summer nationals to compete.

Spain Park’s Eric Wang warms up during a training session. Eric Wang practices three to four times a week with the Birmingham Fencing Club, not counting the tournaments he competes in on the weekends. Over the years, he’s won various awards at state competitions around the U.S., he said.

“Other coaches recognize what Birmingham has done, the USA Fencing know what Birmingham has done, the NCAA college athletes. We are very well recognized as having exceptional coaches in a place where people wouldn’t have figured. A club like ours is a bit of an anomaly,” Arias said.

The best thing to do to “get a flavor for the sport,” Arias said, is to come out on their Free Fencing Fridays, which is the first Friday of every month. At 10 a.m., everyone who comes is taught more about the sport and then gets the opportunity to “suit up” and try it out on their own.

Go to fencingclub.org for more information about the Birmingham Fencing Club.